"Meggie thought this first whisper sounded a little different from one book to another, depending on
whether or not she already knew the story it was going to tell her."
- Inkheart, page 2
ASSIGNMENTS
Debate (25%)
This activity will be evaluated and is weighted at 25% of the grade for this unit. Students will showcase their persuasive argument skills as studied in class as well as their creative thinking and textual analysis skills. Leading up to this activity, students will have already thouroughly studied argumentative writing (they would have written argumentative papers for the Shakespeare unit earlier in the semester). To help prepare for the debate, students will study persuasive argument elements. While the majority of this project must be completed outside class time, students will be given a whole period prior to the Debate Day (Lesson 15) in order to practice their presentations in their groups.
Since the beginning of this unit, students were aligned with a certain character from Inkheart. Thus, they have studied and analysed this character (referred to in the Lesson Plans as Unit Character) on a very detailed scale. This Unit Character will be their assigned character for the debate. This ensures that each student is already well acquainted with his or her character and has already amassed a decent amount of knowledge, analysis, and evidence from the text to help in formulating arguments. The question that the teams will debate is simple, based on the morality of the character: “Is ______ good or evil?”. Because certain characters from Inkheart can be considered objectively good or evil, the teams will not be graded on who is right or wrong; rather, their grades will be based on creative thinking, following debate format, effective oral presentation skills, prepardness, and degree of evidence and textual analysis (click on button below to view the rubric). This debate is meant to be fun while simultaneously demonstrating knowledge.
Constructive critique is also a part of this activity. To ensure close attention from audience members, students will complete a peer-evaluation critique for each team, identifying two elements of the presentation they thought were effectively executed and two elements that could be improved on (click on the buton below to view the Peer-Evaluation form).
A metacognition element is included with this activity: upon completion of their presentation, students will individualy fill out a Self-Evaluation exit card that invites them to reflect on their performance, as well as their identified strengths and weaknesses (click on button below to view this Self-Evaluation form).
FNMI Storytelling (not evaluated)
This activity, occuring in Lesson 8, introduces FNMI culture into the classroom through the frame of storytelling. Class will begin with a viewing of the Ojibwa legend "The Legend of Weesakayjack". After viewing this video clip, the teacher will then use a diagnostic assessment to gauge the students’ knowledge of FNMI cultures. There will be 4 pieces of paper placed on each of the 4 walls of the classroom. They will read: “North = Strongly Agree”, “East = Agree”, “South = Disagree”, and “West = Strongly Disagree” (click on the button below to view these signs). The teacher will ask a series of questions whereby the students will have to physically position themselves by the direction that aligns with their opinion. These questions are meant to assess any prior knowledge about FNMI culture and willingness to learn. Some questions could be: “I am aware of some current issues facing FNMI cultures in Canada”, “I am interested in learning more about the different FNMI cultures in Canada and their histories”, “I feel knowledgeable about the Aboriginal history of Canada” etc. The teacher will use the answers given by the students to start an informal conversation about FNMI cultures before moving into the main activity of the lesson.
Next, the class will then be broken up into literature circles to discuss a reading of different Ojibwa legends: each group will be given a different Ojibwa story based on the character of Nanabush. Please refer to the "Materials" tab to view scans of these stories.. In their groups, students will take turns reading this story out loud to their group. They will then have a brief discussion about whether its structure is similar or different to the structures they have studied so far. Then, they will identify the moral of the story and try to see if this moral relates to any historical events that FNMI cultures faced or to any current FNMI issues. Students can use their Chromebooks at this stage or their cellphones in order to conduct research. Finally, students will also try to identify elements of the story that are specific to FNMI cultures (i.e. the use of animals shows the importance of nature). In this way, they will try to identify FNMI values by analysing the components of the narrative they have read. The groups will then give a brief synopsis of their story and identify any cultural elements they have identified.
Final Project (40%)
This activity will be evaluated and is weighted at 40% of the grade for this unit. Students will be given the opportunity to showcase all assessment aspects, which include knowledge/understanding, thinking, communication, and application. To help prepare for the final project, students will participate in a library information session. During this session, the librarian will teach students how to research using library catalogues and online sources. Furthermore, the librarian will teach students how to conduct a credibility assessment for online sources. Students will be required to complete a credibility assessment for any online sources that they choose to use in their final projects. A significant portion of this project will be complete during class time as three class periods have been allocated for research time in the library and the computer lab (Lessons 21 to 23). Students will be encouraged to work on their projects outside of class time. At the end of the week, students will present their final projects to the class (Lessons 24 and 25).
In the first lesson of this unit, students randomly selected one of six characters from Inkheart. Throughout the unit, they have meticulously studied and analysed this character (referred to in the Lesson Plans as Unit Character). This Unit Character will be their assigned character for their Final Project, a Travelling Trunk. By having students choose a character at the beginning of a unit, it ensures that each student is already well acquainted with his or her character and has already amassed a decent amount of knowledge, analysis, and evidence from the text to help in formulating ideas about objects that should be included in the character’s travelling trunk. The idea surrounding the final project is fairly simple. The student’s Unit Character is read into one of three pre-selected books. The project asks students to think critically of what this situation might entail and based on their characters’ attributes, select items relevant to their characters and situations.
The Travelling Trunks will not be graded on aesthetic as we recognize that students have different artistic abilities; rather, the students’ grades will be based on knowledge and understanding of the content of Inkheart, knowledge and understanding of the content of the secondary source material, critical and creative thinking, making connections, ideas, organization, presentation, research process, and finally, spelling and grammar (please see rubric below). This final project is meant to be a fun way of demonstrating knowledge through creativity.
Content Quiz (5%)
This activity will be evaluated and is weighted at 5% of the grade for this unit. Students will showcase their knowledge/understanding of Inkheart, the elements of fiction, and intertextuality. Students will use the knowledge and skills learned in the first week of the unit to make connections within and between various contexts. In addition, students will be required to use critical and creative thinking skills. This assessment was designed with balance in mind. To that effect, all achievement categories have been equally weighted on the Quest:
Leading up to this assessment, students have thoroughly studied the elements of fiction (these topics were discussed in the unit on drama and Shakespeare). To help prepare for the Quest, students will participate in The Inkwell, a forum which allows students to practice posing and answering a variety of questions. In addition, both the Quest and Unit Test will be collaboratively created. The teacher will choose appropriate questions from The Inkwell for both the Quest and Unit Test. Selected forum questions will test an aspect of knowledge/understanding, thinking, or application. In the exemplar, the second long answer question was drawn from The Inkwell and modified to suit the purpose of the Quest. This Quest is designed to be completed in-class. Students will be given 30 minutes during Lesson 5 to complete the Quest.
